Obenshain gains access to election material

December 11, 2013|By Dave Ress, dress@dailypress.com

State Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonsburg, won his point about gaining access to election materials, including the poll books that show who voted, to help prepare for the recount in the race for attorney general that he lost by 165 votes out of more than 2.2 million cast.

His attorneys this week argued that they needed time to review the material before a Dec. 23 deadline for contesting the election before General Assembly.

Under state law, the legislature, meeting in joint session, can consider whether to call a new election or overturn results of a vote if it believes an election was flawed. More than 60 percent of the combined state Senate and House of Delegates are members of Obenshain's party.

A special recount court rejected Attorney General-elect Mark Herring's argument that the access Obenshain wanted would breach the security required for election materials while a recount is pending.

Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University, said Obenshain's campaign wanted access to the poll books as part of their effort to look for any mistakes that would allow them to question votes.

Obenshain has complained that Fairfax County violated security measures by delivering some ballots to the Fairfax County Circuit Court clerk after a legal deadline. In a letter on Wednesday, Obenshain's senior attorney, William Hurd, told the Fairfax Electoral Board that discrepencies in the times it reported for delivering counted and blank ballots and the times the court reported receiving them are troubling. Because some of the ballots were blank, there is a possibility of tampering, Hurd wrote.